With headwaters located high in the Peruvian Andes, just 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean, the Amazon River gathers strength from over 1000 tributaries as it flows for more than 4,300 miles (6,900 km) across the South American continent. On meeting the Atlantic Ocean, this mighty river discharges 7.7 million cubic feet of water per second, drowning its nearest competitor, the Congo, by a factor of five. The river's massive, 2.7 million square mile basin (7 million square km) is home to the Amazon Rainforest, the largest collection of living species on the planet.

This specimen is a vial of Amazon River Water similar to those in the Mini Museum Fourth Edition. The item is encased in an acrylic specimen jar and housed in a glass-topped riker display box measuring 4x3x1 (inches). A small information card will accompany the specimen.

The water in this vial was personally collected by Hans near Iquitos, Peru. Iquitos is known as the "Peruvian capitol of the Amazon", and has the distinction of being the largest city on Earth which is only accessible by river or air. We are greatly indebted to the assistance of German Perilla of the Amazon Bee Project and Geraldo Torres of Iquitos for their invaluable assistance and expert advice in acquiring this specimen. A generous donation has been made to the Amazon Bee Project on behalf of Mini Museum.

Bound by the ancient Guiana Highlands to the north, and its unique tepuis or “table-top” mountains which rise from the jungle below, and the rolling hills of the Brazilian Plateau to the south, the Amazon basin may seem timeless. Yet like much of the Earth’s surface, the region has undergone many changes. Mountains have risen and fallen. Water has crossed the continent in both directions. Unique forms of life have taken shape here, and newcomers have been nurtured by the landscape.

During the Cretaceous Period, the Eastern Highlands rose during the separation of the South American and African continents, sending water westward toward the Pacific. During the Miocene Epoch, water actually flowed both ways from a low ridge in the center of the continent known as the Purus Arch. Later, as the Andes began their rise, a significant portion of the western continent was a massive, enclosed wetland encompassing 1,000,000 sq km (390,000 sq mi). The Purus Arch later succumbed to millions of years of pounding water, and the river broke free, carrying Andes sediment to the Atlantic 11,000,000 years ago.

The silt-heavy Andean tributaries of the Amazon are called “whitewater” rivers; tributaries sourced in the Guiana Highlands and the Brazilian Plateau, meanwhile, are either “blackwater” rivers, stained dark by humic acids, or clearwater rivers that carry little suspended sediment.

The Amazon’s largest tributary, the Rio Negro, is a blackwater river, and at Manaus, Brazil it empties into the mainstem in the famous “Meeting of the Waters,” its warmer, darker outflow clearly demarked against the whitewater current for several miles before mixing. Similar “meetings” occur in many places, but few are quite as dramatic.

As the river approaches the sea, the Amazon splits into many distributaries forming a great estuary that approaches 200 miles across and encompasses the gigantic island of Marajo. Strong Atlantic tides and currents discourage the formation of a delta at the Amazon’s mouth, but its plume of freshwater reduces the ocean’s salinity as far as 200 miles offshore.

Most studies suggest that humans first entered the Amazon Basin 10,000 years ago. Until very recently, researchers assumed that the people were few in number, living nomadic lives which had very little impact on the natural landscape. New botanical studies have shown that humans living in the Amazon were far more numerous
than expected, and likely had a tremendous impact on plant diversity going back thousands of years. In a paper published in March of 2018, archeologists revealed 81 sites using LiDAR surveying systems which show a complex culture of earthwork building existed in the southern Amazon. Population estimates for this region alone have exceeded more than 1,000,000 people.

These new discoveries suggest that we have much more to learn about the history of this incredibly diverse resource, but we may be running out of time. Nearly 20% of the rainforest in the Amazon basin has been lost, as deforestation and development during the latter decades of the 20th century have stripped away 750,000 sq km (290,000 sq mi). Vast and rapid migration of indigenous people to urban areas have left even more of the landscape vulnerable to destruction.

It will be a difficult road ahead, but there are signs that conditions may improve. While deforestation is ongoing, the volume of land lost each year has declined as governments have put new policies into place. Numerous programs, such as the Amazon Bee Project, are working to enable indigenous people to stay connected to their lands and improve their quality of life without relocation. These are positive steps, but maintaining the progress and reversing the damage will take decades of focus and attention. This might seem like a long time in human terms, but in the scope of a landscape like the Amazon it is a drop in the bucket.